Romione and the Chamber of Secrets
by Windy Silvermist
Summary: WHat happens after Harry leaves and up to the time were the kiss. OOC. Beware of weird comparisons. And words that don't exist, and above all *gasp* CHEESEY! And worse CHEESEY...FLUFF!
1. In which Ron is the smart one

Well, this is my first oneshot..ish...thing. Well once I have it finished it will be a oneshot. I'll group them all together. But for now I'm just impatient for it to be up sorry. I'll probablly write more for it soon. But not till you review. So do it.

HAPPY READING! (seriously enjoy it or else)

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Ron and Hermione stood awkwardly in the middle of the Room of Requirements; both of them silently wondering what the heck the were going to do now that Harry had rushed off without them. Well, they both understood that they couldn't come, but still could he at least make a plan first? For once?

"So…" Hermione said. "What do you think we should do now?" Ron, in a Ron like manner simply shrugged. "Honestly Ronald," Hermione chided, "Do I always have to come up with the plan? Can't you muster up some input for once?"

Ron went on the defensive as most males do. "Well, you never seem to give me the chance to have a say in the matter now do you?" Ron accused.

"Oh," Hermione hissed, "Don't even go there. I just offered you the chance to plan something. So whats this great, apparently real plan of yours, I'd like to hear it." She glared at him smugly.

"Well, who says I don't have one" Ron replied indignantly. They were just about to get into one of their famous flirt fights when disaster struck in the form of Lavender Brown. Who was elbowing her way through the crowd towards them with the determination of an eagle zeroing in on its prey, who by the look on his face, happened to be Ron. Ron upon noticing this did what any brave man would do in this situation. Duck behind the nearest object, a.k.a. Hermione Granger. Hermione rolled her eyes at his antics, but was also dreading the point when Lavender landed. _What if she persuades Ron to date her again?_ She thought nervously, _what if the start kissing right there?_

While Hermione was sending herself done the quickest road to a heart attack, Ron was attempting to come up with an escape route, he almost wanted to see Lavender less than Hermione, well I said almost. _Ugh,_ he thought, _I can't stand Lavender. All she wants to do is snog, and she is so petty and jealous, not like Hermione…No! Ron back to earth, and to be honest I only went out with her to make Hermione jealous, which worked, with a couple of downsides" _he thought of McLaggen, and how miserable he had unintentionally made Hermione, he had even made her cry, he almost shuddered at the thought. Now, though, was not the time to think of how bad he screwed up with Hermione, now was the time to get out of this mess had got himself into. _Where to go, where to go, _he thought frantically searching for any plausible excuse, _must get away from Lavender, I'd rather be anywhere but here. Why, Harry have you forsaken me and left me with she devil? Why? I'd rather be in a room with Moaning Myrtle for a week than this torture!_ _Wait second, _Ron thought for it was all beginning to fall into place for him, _Moaning Myrtle….bathroom…Chamber of Secrets! ,_Ron thought excitedly, _Didn't Hermione say something about Basilisk venom killing horcruxes? And we still have the Hufflepuff cup! This is perfect! And Hermione said I didn't have one. I'll show her. _Ron finished concocting his plan triumphantly, yet ever so smugly.

He did so in the nick of time. As he finished his oh-so brilliant plan, Lavender made impact. Batting her eyebrows furiously with so much vigor to it that it was believable that she did two hundred eye bats before each meal to keep the fit.

"Hi R-" she started out in her most flirtatious manner before being cut off by none other than her prey. It's rather like just as the eagle was about to sweep the mouse of to the nest filled with the chicks of lust, jealousy, and overall pettiness, the mouse pulls out a flamethrower of cleverness (which it doesn't seem to posses that much, usually it's the pistol of total ignorance) and burns it's feathers away. And saves the girl mouse it's in love with (who is the proud owner of that flamethrower of cleverness). That's kind a what the scenario that was happening here was like. Except without the cool metaphors.

"Sorry, Lavender, Me and _Hermione," _He put special emphasis on Hermione hoping she'd take the hint. "Have important business to do, like saving the world stuff." After that he quickly rushed out of the Room of Requirement and into the hallway, pulling a rather grateful Hermione along with him.

After recovering slightly Hermione managed to spit out a flirtsult " Oh, very mature Ron, run away." Though secretly she was very relieved, so relieved she wasn't going to tell him off for his awful grammar back there. "So, besides running away from your ex, what is your plan?" Waiting happily for his jumbled up response. He was just so cute on the defensive. She was however disappointed, yet slightly relieved, when he drew himself up so pridefully that it could only mean that he _had_ come up with a plan while he was hiding behind her. Disappointed because she loved their little spats, and relieved because almost as much as she loved her spats with Ron, she loved having a plan.

"The Chamber of Secrets." he stated with a self-satisfied smile placed crookedly upon his face. He watched with glee as befuddlement crossed her face, and she started mumbling. Then a split second latter, a smile of comprehension lit up across her face and she looked at him rather like a mother whose proud of her son who finally learned something(Except Mothers don't have ginormas crushes on their sons but that's not that point). She looked up at him with his exact same smile, without the self-satisfied bit of course, mirrored on her dace and said, "That is very impressive Ron." Pride leaked through her every word, and Ron felt happiness well up inside him as he stared down at Hermione. Ron figured the only thing that could make Hermione any happier was if he said that he had finally read _Hogwarts: A History._

Ron started running. Over his shoulder he shouted " Last one to Moaning Myrtles Bathroom is Moaning Myrtle!" Hermione gave a blissful laugh and set off after him knowing she would lose, but enjoying it anyway. Till, they got there, Ron and Hermione were just students after hours and there wasn't a war in the world.

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Anyway hope you enjoyed it comment commment comment!

**DOOO IT****!**

Love0 Windy of the cheesy romance and weirdness (THE HOFF FORGIVES YOU ALL!) (No I don't expect you to get it. If you're wondering it's from the literal version of Ooga Hooga(or something like that) by David Hasllehoff(or something like that))

**DOOOOOOOO IT!**


	2. In which Inner Demons are faced

When the got there, panting and out of breath, the joy filled mood that a chased them through the corridors dissolved to the depressing scene reality laid before them. The gleeful laughs from before, now took on an eerie tone. As if to say that happiness was just a memory. Hermione shivered from the deadened silence in the hallway. Even the creepy laughs had abandoned them. Ron reacted to that by instinctively wrapping his arm around Hermione. When she leaned into him he took that as a sign and pulled her close to him. They stood their for a while, just hugging. Soaking up the feeling of not being alone, and just silently comforting each other. Eventually however, they finally realized what they were doing and broke apart. A blush spread across both their faces and it took a good bought of awkward silence for them to say anything.

"So err" Hermione mumbled quietly, "Shall we go in?" Ron jumped a bit, as if he had forgotten the whole reason they were here.

Ron ambled warily to the door, and opened it. "Ladies first" he said making the "go ahead" gesture.

" Whimp." Hermione replied scathingly, but went in anyway. The entered into the bathroom with baited breath waiting for something to spring out at them. When nothing happened after a few minutes, they both visibly relaxed. "Myrtle must be haunting some other bathroom tonight." she said letting a tiny smile flit across her face, but then she went back to business. "So," she stated, "Where is this Sink of Slytherian anyway." Ron led her over to the sink and pointed to the tap with the small snake engraved on it, and Hermione let a little groan. "This whole time it sat there under my very nose, I must have come in here three times a week…if I had only thought to ask Myrtle, I could have solved this before Ginny was ever taken." Ron was taken aback to find tears welling up in those gorgeous amber eyes of hers and quickly set out to stop them before they overflowed. Mainly because he wanted to comfort Hermione the other reason being that he didn't have as single as what to do when girls cried.

"Oh don't get upset Hermione," Ron whispered soothingly trying to think of words to comfort her off the top of his head. "Harry told me that it took You-Know-Who months, even years, I think, to find the entrance." This took away all traces of tears from Hermione's eyes but not in the effect he would have like.

"You realize, don't you," Hermione retorted waspishly, her face contorting angrily, "That comparing me to the darkest, and most evil, power hungry, most despicable person in the world, does not make me feel any better don't you?" Her voice seemed to go an octave angrier with each word, that was spat out of her fuming mouth. Ron realizing the error of his ways, quickly attempted to back-peddle. But was cut of by Hermione who was know staring thoughtfully at the pipe. Which caused Ron to think that girls were the most complicated beings in the world. After a few minutes Hermione snapped out of it.

"Besides being utterly clueless at the art of comforting girls" Ron made a disgruntled noise,"Oh, there's no use denying Ronald, but as I was saying. Though the plan was brilliant in theory" another disgruntled noise was inserted here,"Just let me finish, though it was rather smart, I'm correct in saying that it takes parseltounge to open it. I also believe I'm correct in saying that Voldemort and Harry are the only known parsletounges that are currently alive. And since niether you nor I seem to be either one of the people what do you propose we do Sir I'mareallygoodplanmaker?"

Ron was honestly drawing a blank. "Huh…" his cluelessness seeped out through his vocal chords and voiced his reaction to this problem.

Hermione smirked.

"Just," he remarked impatiently, "Just give me a minute…I'll think of _something_." There was a bit of desperation in his voice though Hermione didn't know that it wasn't from the want to beat her, but the want to prove himself to her. She heard it, but ignored it because she was still rather angry from the Voldemort comfort phase. She then did the only thing a girl with wounded pride would do, wound his.

Hermione snorted.

It was the snort that did really. A thought had been lingering in the back of his mind ever since Hermione pointed out the fatal flaw, but it was so stupid it couldn't possibly work. But now, what id he have to lose? He had already lost Hermiones faith in him to finish what he started. He could only go up from here. Besides whats a few ridiculous ego deflating noises if it will earn back Hermione's trust? So he focus on his memory of Harry saying it, when he was in second unwilling to go forward in his memories to his most recent encounter with parseltounge. He tried to startle it out of his vocal chords by pure concentration. He began to make some pretty none snake like noises, they actually sort of resembled choking but he didn't know that because he was to focused to actually hear the things that aren't coming out right. He just knew that he would know when it came out right, mainly because he would hear the bathroom shake. The point was though his parselmouth attempts sounded more like trying to dislodge something from my throughout attempts.

Hermione however was having panic attack…again. All she knew was that one minute he was trying to think of some way to fix his spoiled plan, with that cute little trying to figure something out that's beyond me look, then he was making choking noises on his hands and knees staring at the pipe. A dreadful thought came to her. Had her mocking cause him to go into some sort, asthma like reaction with hurt pride instead of fear? _Is that even possible…focus!_ she shouted internally to clear her head.

"Uh…okay" Hermione began to mumble to herself, "What do you do when somebody is going to choke, the…uh…the Heimlich Manuver, yes!" Then of course she realized he wasn't really choking on anything she could see. After this realization she tried numerous spell for the clearing of the air passage way, and a couple of counter curses for basically unknown choking curses. She gave up and slumped against that bathroom wall and began to cry.

After a couple of tears had trailed down her cheek; her logical finally managed what it was trying to do all along. Win the wrestling match in Hermione's head between her logical self and her emotionally wrecked self. It had been a long hard match because you know how they say when someone you love gets hurt it gives you strength you never knew you had? Works for internal struggles too. Her logical side had eventually triumphed. Because after years of building it up with unessacery knowledge it was really, really strong. It currently held her emotional side in half nelson…while sitting on it.

Hermione then began to realize some things she had missed in her emotionally wrecked state of trying to make sure Ron didn't die. That even though it had been a good ten minutes or so trying to stop Ron from choking he was still breathing. Ron's face was not blue. His choking now kinda resembled hissing noises. Then it all clicked into place. For the ten minutes Ron had not been choking, he had been trying to say open in parseltounge. From Hermione's stand point it just wasn't his forte. She also new there was absolutely nothing she could do to help him. This was something he had to do on his own. She got the feeling that he was facing something bigger than just saying the word right. So she did the only small thing she could do. She went over to him and whispered a few words of encouragement softly in his ear. Then she went and did something useful why she waited.

Ron had been trying for what seemed like forever to say the word open in this cursed snake language. He still couldn't do it. He knew why of course but he wasn't willing to do it. He knew to get this right he would have to revisit the memory of the night had finally came back. He had done a very good job of repressing that memory. Deep inside himself he knew, though, that to get into the chamber he'd have to go there. He didn't want to. He didn't want to so badly. Was he really going to open up that memory and realease what had been trapped in there. Go back to his doubts and worries. He had managed to lock those all up when he came back. He had to other wise he couldn't have come back, they would have held him back. He had kept them happily locked up where they couldn't nag him. Now it was really his only option. The question was could he do it? Then something amazing almost miraculous happened. He heard Hermione's voice whisper "You can do it Ron, I believe in you." and suddenly he could do it. Even the worries and the self doubt didn't seem so bad, he plowed through the with those nine little words echoing through his head, and then…he faltered. Here was the memory, and then there was only the memory.

He was staring there looking into the warped faces of his best friend, and his more than best friend, whispering his doubts, his secret fears, dragging him down, he was sinking back into a hole he himself had made in his heart. When a voice that sounded suspiciously like Hermione's voice said slightly condescending, _didn't Harry say he didn't feel for her that way, didn't he say she was his sister? _This was true Ron remembered and it gave him a ray of hope, but his inner demons wouldn't let go and they brought to mind a less hopeful thought. Who sad Hermione felt the same way? Just like that the ray dimmed almost completely diminished but it was still there, like a frail little rope, ready for when Ron reached up and grabbed it, saying it would always be there. He was sinking slowly and surely into his doubts and fears. _This this crazy_, he though to himself,_ this isn't even the right part of the memory, this was never part of the memory_. He tried to get back to the memory which was up because even his horrible memory was better than where he was now. He strained but, he couldn't, it was hopeless he was hopeless. Then he heard it. Maybe it had been there the whole time, but he had only been listen to himself. But as he listen to those nine little words grow louder, and he watched the thread of light grow stronger, he knew , he finally knew he could do it. That he was worth something, he was loved, and maybe just maybe he worth Hermiones love. With a one effortless reach he grabbed the light rope, and just like that he was at the right scene. It wasn't even scary because was there him and those nine little words. He heard Harry say it, and Ron ,well Ron just repeated it after him, with a big grin on his face.

Suddenly he was back in that bathroom the grin still on his face, and he looked down at his hand, and just for a second he thought he saw it, still wrapped around his hand. Then it was gone. He came to the realization that he was shaking and covered with sweat. Then as he got to his feet every so slowly, since his knees were wobbling so hard, he came to two realizations almost simultaneously. The first was that in front of him was the now opened Chamber of Secrets which made the big grin even bigger. Then he realized suddenly as he turned around to look for his companion, that he also covered not only in sweat, but in Hermione. She was smothering him in a big hug. For one moment he was so relishing this fact that he forgot to listen what she was saying.

"-just so glad you're okay. What happened? You were just kneeling there then you just collapsed and you didn't even move. And then you got up on your knees and you made this weird sound and suddenly your awake, and your happy, and your grinning. What happened?" Then she decided to breathe. At some point she had let go of him and started gesturing wildly which was cute in Ron's opinion.

Ron wanted to tell her what happened but, he couldn't he couldn't explain it right now. He promised himself he would explain it to here latter when the time was right. What he said was, "I…just can't explain it right now" to is surprise she nodded understandingly.

"I got the feeling it was something like that." She replied "Well, tell me if you can someday." the look on her face was so hopeful at the thought of getting new information that he wanted to just tell her everything or laugh. He went with laughing.

She gave a little hump. "What?" she asked.

Ron just shook his head " I…" then he took a different turn in his conversation, "Thank you, I guess"

"For what?" she asked, "I haven't really done anything." Ron just walked up to her and held her close. _More than you know_, he thought, _more than you know… _he looked down at her, she was too nestled in his chest to see it, but a small crooked grin had taken over mouth, and there was love shining in his eyes as he looked down at his small bushy haired angel. The angel that fought his demons. The angel that he loved.

Eventually they knew they had to let go and face the chamber. They let go slowly and the both had to tear the selves away from each other. Yet in the face of Ron's return to the chamber where his sister and best friend almost died, Hermione's first glance into the place where her friends almost had their memory and Ginny, and Harry almost died, and the fact that one of them was going to have to kill Voldemort's soul, they just couldn't quite let go. So they held hands as they faced the gaping hole that was the entrance to the chamber.

"We'll go together, on three." Ron said decisively. They approached the broad tunnel together and were about to sit down at the edge, when suddenly Hermione jerked them back.

"Wait" she yelped, and quickly dragged him over to the corner where two brooms were leaning up against the wall. "For getting out of the chamber," she said before he even could send her a questioning glance. " I summoned them while you were…trying to speak parseltounge" she had paused bit trying to sum up what happened because they both new it was defiantly something more than just trying to say something.

"Brilliant," Ron replied happy that one of them could think of everything. He even cracked a smile, "Quite convenient actually, considering we don't have a phoenix around." And a bad joke. Hermione just rolled her eyes and tugged him towards the opening. She gave each of them a broom before on the count of three they were sliding down the tunnel hand in hand, towards the most terrifying place in Hogwarts.


	3. In which Hermione gets a bit dumb

What I actually know how to update? Yes I do. Your laziest author is back with another chapter of mind blowing awesomeness on the Romione story. This translates to: This is a filler chapter! Yeah! So, hope you enjoy this. Except an update sooner than the period of time it took this. I'm working on my writing will power. Pray it's a success (your amusement is on the line her people)!

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They slid to a stop on a huge pile of rat bones. Lovely. The silence was deafening. Or maybe it was the tension since the rat bones were making crunching noises.

Hermione was looking slightly frightened, intimidated, and if possible griping Ron's hand tighter even. She knew she shouldn't, logically, be afraid. After all, the basilisk was dead, Harry, Ron and Ginny were still fine, and this honestly wasn't the worst place she'd ever been. The fear persevered however, determined. Something about this place wasn't right. She couldn't put her finger one what it was but it wasn't right. It had this dark foreboding presence that couldn't be ignored. Like something bad happened to everyone entered. Hermione gulped.

Ron however was having a completely different reaction. Maybe it was because he had already experienced the bad thing. I mean nothings worse then worrying about your possessed sister and your best mate fighting a death glare giant snake of doom and a bit of Voldemort's soul (though he wasn't aware at the time but still an evil villain's soul known or not, it's scarily impressive.) while your stuck with a dude who just tried to kill you with a memory charm who because of your wonderfully defective wand, now doesn't know who he his which is pretty bloody annoying when you already hate his guts. So you could say Ron was past his bad experience here. I mean sure it's creepy but so is every other place he's been with Harry. So Ron did one of the few things that would creep Hermione out even more, he started to laugh.

Hermione just kind of stared at him till he stopped.

"What?" he asked completely oblivious to just how utterly insane he looked.

"Why. Are. You. Laugh-ing." She said her words slowly hoping to get across his obviously cracked mind.

It must have been around that point when Ron realized just how demented he sounded. His embarrassment at the situation caused his reply to go something like this. "Uhhh…" He mumbled. "I was just…uh…laughing at the…uh …" he seemed to trail off here. Then he gained courage and coughed it out quickly "Memories."

"Ron!" Hermione said her fear making her more hysterical than usual "What can possibly be amusing about this place!"

Ron chuckled nervously "Well, looking back this was really one of the more easier adventures for me. Plus" he said laughter edging into his voice "Lockhart was making a git of himself and that has its entertainment value."

Hermione just shook her head, or was it her teeth shaking her head? She didn't know) "Well, R-ron, if you'r-re so brave why d-don't you go first-t." Hermione managed to retort with minimal stutters. While being scared out of half her wits (which means she has now been reduced to person who is a straight A student, but not however A+++++) she still managed to be vindictive. How they were still managing to flirt is a mystery to me. Ron not being the least bit scared, while Hermione was looking, accepted and led the way…to a giant snakeskin.

Hermione froze staring in horror

"Oh," he muttered," Probably should have told you 'bout that." Hermione stiffly nodded her head, while making a strangled little noise. Ron took her hand and started to drag her through the snakeskin.

"C'mon 'Mione." He coaxed, "It's only a bit of snake skin." Hermione choked on a sarcastic huff but Ron got the message," Okay, okay, it's a bloody large piece of snake skin, but it's only skin. Besides the real things dead, there's nothing to worry about." Hermione refused to unfreeze. "Fine then," Ron said, " I might as well go all the way if you going to revert back to your petrified state every time you see it, never mind looking it in the eye." Hermione stared blankly at the skin, figuring the skin was the problem he tried to divert her attention from it.

"Okay 'Mione don't look at the skin, look at me" slowly Ron turned her head towards him. And like that Ron Navigated through the snake skin. Hermione's eyes never moving from his, till they finally made it out of the skin "We're through the skin 'Mione were done." He walked the few steps foreword into…

"Oh, yeah, huh forgot about this too." Ron murmured sheepishly, staring at the avalanche of rocks, with a small gap in it, "Well Harry really was a scrawny git if he could fit through that hole." He chuckled quietly at his joke. Hermione, who had snapped out over her frozen state but still wasn't paying attention, nodded absentmindedly. If there's one thing that can distract Hermione from fear, it's a problem that needs to be solved.

Ron watched as Hermione surveyed the situation of the wall of rock, and began to mutter and flick her wand around. He smiled fondly as she solved the problem in a matter of minutes. _That was his Mione alright_, Ron found himself thinking. Then he became of what he was thinking and blushed, unfortunately I might add, as Hermione turned to flash a grin back at him having just finished clearing the tunnel safely.

"Ron," she asked, "Are you okay, you look a bit flushed?"

Ron blushed even harder. But decided to give her a compliment anyway. "Blimey Hermione, wish you would have been here the first time around, would of made my job a heck of a lot easier."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his laziness. "Honestly I don't know how you accomplish anything with your work ethics."

Ron shot her a glare and muttered under his breath "Well, I don't know how you have any fun with yours."

"I heard that Ronald." Hermione sang out and flourished her wand at him in a way that made him prefer the creepy tunnels to being with Hermione any longer; so he sprinted off into the tunnels. This lasted a couple seconds before he fell with a muffled curse, seeing as it was pitch black and all.

Hermione smiled softly as she lit her wand and followed Ron into the tunnel "Lumos, Ron, Lumos." She said as she entered the tunnel.

This comment was followed by a muttered "I bloody well know that now don't I."

Hermione's laugh echoed through the chamber, bringing a little light to a darkened world.

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That better have amused you! Prove that I can be amusing (and motivate me further) by reviewing. None of this add as alert without a review crap (that I do all the time. But review anyway! Don't be a cold-hearted creep as I am). Yeah, I know who you are (or at least I would if I hadn't deleted my e-mail alert). Seriously though, just a simple review to anyone (yes I would prefer it to be me but I can't exactly put up fight with me as an example) really cheers them up. Do it and make people out there happy!

From the Books

-Windy


	4. In which there is bad singing

It's me your most fantabulous favorite writer-thing to bring you more marvelous accounts of what exactly went on in the chamber. This translates to: there is no way this ever happened. I manage to skew quite a few things. Anyway I have brought you fluff, weird, annoying fluff, but fluff nonetheless so be grateful. In other very exciting news I think there should be only two more chapters after this. Three at the most. Your all staring at me like: How long can this crazy writer-thing draw this out? Don't ask that question it will only bring to your ultimate demise. Anyway here it is R&R. Don't care if it's positive or negative seeing as it is probably doomed to be the latter. Oh and tell me what you think of the interjections, do the ruin the story or enhance it?

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(Now at one point there was actually a scene were everything they did on the way to the big chamber was talked about. I however find that it is terribly dull. So I cut it out. In case you're wondering what you're missing it was mostly just silence. Occasionally they would speak up to make a fascinating comment such as "This place is really creepy" and then there'd be a muttered reply. I will, however include a little bit near the end. Only because I find it terribly amusing, and the fact that it's rather necessary to make them not look like complete loons.)

The silence was killing him. After what seemed like hours in the creepy tunnels, Ron had come to believe that the silence was actually, hitting him with the killing curse. He couldn't stand the silence any longer he had to do _something _or he would literally go insane. So did the only thing that a wizard under the pressure of silence. He sang. Funny thing was being under a lot of strain does things to your singing voice. It was very hard to describe, but I believe Hermione put it best:

"You sound like a dying goose." She said. Nonetheless, she began to sing along, with her pretty decent singing voice; till it became apparent that neither of them had any clue as to what they were singing. Being from a wizard family, and from a muggle family had its distinct downsides in knowledge of the same music. So after racking their brains for a few minutes Ron offered up, as a last resort a song he unfortunately knew all the words to.

"A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love?" Ron asked torn between hatred of the song and wanting the silence to just die already.

"You mean the one Mrs. Weasley blasted the whole time we were cleaning the house for the wedding?" Ron nodded. "The one that has become permanently ingrained into my memory no matter how many times I try to obliviate myself?"

"That's the one."

And so the self-inflicted torture began. They sang as the strolled through the creepiest sewer system on earth right up until the point where they reached the big intertwining snake things, (which they apparently didn't notice because they were too busy having a little love fest…in the middle of Slytherian's Chamber of Secrets.)

Somewhere along this short walk through the sewers (of love.) they had actually began to sing in what some people might accept as harmony. The stopped on their own accord as they reached the last verse.

_"Oh, come and stir my cauldron" _

Ron couldn't help but turn towards her as he sang this last part. He stared straight into those beautiful chocolate colored eyes of hers trying to communicate everything he never said aloud with the worst song in the world. 

_"And if you do it right"_

_He is so handsome_, Hermione thought distractedly as she stared into Ron's aquamarine eyes. Al she wanted to do was kiss him…but she couldn't, it would ruin everything. The percentage of him liking her out of all the girls he had met was too low; his friendship was too precious to lose.

_"I'll boil you up some hot, strong love"_

As Ron tried to get all the emphasis her could on that last word he decided that he would kiss her. Sure it's not the perfect place to have a first kiss with the woman you love, but it felt…right. He gathered all his Gryffindor courage and started to slowly lean in still whispering the words slowly.

_"To keep you warm tonight"_

Hermione started to panic as he inched his was towards her. She wanted him to kiss her more than anything, but she wanted him to kiss her for the right reasons. There could be a million reasons why he wanted to kiss her: caught up in the moment (oh you know Mrs. Weasley planned this whole thing out unconsciously), it was a romantic song, he was looking for comfort…

A million scenarios of why he could be kissing her spanned out in front of her, none of them were for the right reasons; all of them ended tragically. No, she wouldn't let him kiss her, she would not have her heartbroken again by Ron Weasley, she would not go home and cry once he told her, in that cute heart-wrenching way of his, that it was all a big mistake. No, Hermione would not let that happen.

So as they whispered the last words in harmony, Ron's face looming ever closer, Hermione (mostly useless from her close proximity with Ron) searched frantically with her eyes. She found what she was looking for.

"Ron look!" she said pointing to the eerie snakes that intertwined together in ball that was almost writhing: that blocked off the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione could almost hear the snakes hissing, they were that real. She shivered.

Ron was reluctant to draw away but he new that the moment had already been broken. Was he really that revolting? That Hermione would rather face killing a Horocrux? He felt his heart sink in his chest. He felt her shudder and turned to see what she was staring at.

"Yikes"

"Yeah." Hermione replied. There was silence and Hermione stared at him expectantly. "Aren't you going to open it?" she finally asked after seeing that he was absolutely oblivious to what she was talking about.

Ron (who is not actually the idiot he tries so desperately to be) was halfway between staring at her in some sort of stupor and trying to figure out why she wouldn't kiss him. Upon this startling revelation that they were still in the Chamber he put his musings and longing to the side so that he could fully help Hermione. As he looked at the snakes it wasn't hard to believe the snakes were real, not that he needed them to. What he needed was Hermione's hand in his, but seeing as Hermione was avoiding him like the plague, well like anyone locked in a room with someone with the plague, he was going to have to make do with pretending that those snakes were going to eat him if he didn't hurry up and say open in parseltounge. He rasped out a jumbled sound of hissing and the huge snake door opened.

The first thing Ron noticed was the smell. It had already smelled like sewage before but this scent took the cake. It was like rotting dung. It smelled like rotting dung, surrounded by normal smelling dung, on a bloody rotten hot day. In the middle of a landfill (There was something else there in the place of 'landfill" but it wasn't children friendly so I replaced it. Muggles are a bunch of loons, putting garbage in the ground like that.).

What struck Ron was the snake itself. "Kings of Snakes" it is called, well no wonder that thing was a bloomin' giant. Beside him he heard Hermione gasp. She was staring horrified at the mass of scales and poisonous fangs.

"How did Harry ever survive?" Hermione eyes were glued to the snake as she said this.

"I really don't know 'Mione. I just don't know." He replied calmly and prepared for an onslaught of questions with obvious answers,

"How did he kill Voldemort's soul?"

"He had the basilisk fangs."

"How did he kill that basilisk, he was twelve!"

"The sword of Gryffindor."

"He could of died!"

"Yes, multiple times."

"How did he not die?"

"He had Fawkes."

"He was TWELVE!"

"I _know_ Hermione; I was there."

Hermione grasped for another last pointless shout as she felt her shock slowly draining from her.

"TWELVE!"

Ron did not feel the need to answer at this point.

Silence. They both stared at the snake.

"We have a pretty awesome best friend don't we?" Ron asked.

"No, I don't think it's an awesome best friend we have." Ron stared at her shock across his features. "We have an awesome brother."

Ron froze, his stare still graced his face inside however was a whole different story. _Harry had been right. Harry had been RIGHT! Hermione did think of Harry as a brother_. Ron's thought process was ecstatic. His nightmare of Hermione falling for Harry was now purely that, a nightmare. He had a chance with Hermione. He could sing! Except he already had(badly).

His joy seemed to have malfunctioned how his words came out (or maybe his natural instinct to say just the wrong thing) because instead of something like "Can I snog you now?" what came out was this:

"You get kinda emotional when your scared don't you?" Hermione slapped him.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"You deserved it."

"I was just commenting!"

"Keep your comment to yourself then." Hermione muttered as she started walked towards the dead snake. "Come on Ronald lets get these fangs and go." Hermione pointed at one of the fangs and muttered "Diffindo". It fell to the floor.

Ron picked it up, "So I think you should kill the cup while the poison still fresh and not dried-up…" He trailed off seeing Hermione was staring at him funny. "What?"

"Here…Now…_Me_?" Hermione asked fear making her voice go higher with each word.

"Well, yeah," Ron said surprised that he knew something she didn't. "if I've learned one thing from Harry it that certain actions lead to certain consequences. I think it has something to do with it being a sacrifice, or brave or something." He scratched his head confusedly. "I don't know but it somehow feels like you have to do it. Not me."

Then as a second-thought he tacked on. "And if not then both Me and Harry have already killed one. So I'm forcing you to do it anyway."

"It was almost believable up until that last sentence." Hermione remarked though fear tinged her voice.

And for once in his ignorant life, Ron noticed she was scared. For once he did the right thing. He walked over slowly and surely, and wrapped his arms around her till she stopped shaking. "You've got to do this 'Mione. It's got be you. " He turned her so she was looking him straight in the eye. "You can do this. Your Hermione Jean Granger and if you can't do it no one can, and I've already done it; so I _know_ you can do this."

With each word Ron said Hermione felt a bit warmer and more self-assured. It was not the words themselves so much as the emphasis behind them. There was love behind those words , and confidence in her. This above all is what steadied her resolve to kill the horcrux. Ron believed everything he said, he really believed in her! His words were no empty words of comfort; he was convinced that there was no way she could fail. This left her feeling slightly intoxicated and ready to face anything.

"I think I can do this." Hermione said a slight waver in her voice. She then beat Ron to the bunch by following up with: "I know that I can do this." And she did. Not only had Ron's belief in her boosted her morals but it had boosted her self-confidence. She believed in herself almost as much as Ron did.

She turned to Ron "Lets just get this over with."

He nodded and set the cup carefully on the floor without touching it. He was internally rather glad, he didn't see much of a threat coming from the cup. How could it possibly be a menace like the locket?

Hermione walked slowly towards the cup. The fang in her hand poised for attack. As she brought her hand down to destroy the cup, her hand jerked to a stop; the cup was filling up with…

* * *

Okay so you paid dearly for that bit of fluff that I gave you, but what can I say I love cliffies. Actually If I was more on top I probably would have just gone straight into the next paragraph and until the horacrux is destroyed, but I'm not so this is a result. And nonsensical annoying cliffie that adds nothing to the dramatics. Yeah I'm annoyed with it to. Anyway I hope you didn't hate it too much. I think that was a closer update then the last though it still took forever take heart dear readers (Hi Miri!) I think I'm increasing my productivity somewhat. Please give me some feedback as much as you think I spit out this crap for you to read I don't actually want to make you read crap. Help me make it better! -Windy of the lazies


	5. In which there is much Remorse

It was a dark, shifting liquid. It glittered dangerously in the dimly lit chamber. It was a bunch of contradictions. It was dark, yet it was the first thing to catch your eye. It had a smooth surface, yet it was swirling ever so slowly slipping Hermione into a spellbound stupor.

Hermione was drawn to the liquid a strange desire to see it, touch it; just to figure out what it is. She leaned forward as to see the concoction better. The fang lay forgotten at her side. Her hand hesitantly made it's way closer and closer to the shadowy liquid. Ron shouted something at her, a warning probably. She waved him off with words she couldn't even remember after they left her mouth. She gasped as finger touched the water.

It felt cold, bone-chillingly so. Yet a soon as she acknowledged the frozen feeling it gave her, she felt a sharp hot prick. She watched as her blood melted into the liquid shadows. Some small part of her realized that this was a trick, that what would happen next would be horrendously awful. This part was greatly muffled by the desire, the curiosity in which to see what would happen next. And what happened next was startling.

An image began to form on the cup's surface. It showed Hermione, but not the real Hermione. This Hermione was stunning. Her hair was beautiful; it was sleek, shiny, and a gorgeous amber-brown color. It looked nothing like that mass of hair she'd had right now. Her skin was like cream. Her lips were luscious. She wore a lovely emerald gown that complimented her form perfectly. She was perfection. There were no bags under her eyes from long sleepless night. Her back didn't slouch from all those times bent over books. There was not a bit of weariness in the way she proudly held herself. Hermione longed to be that woman who was desirable in every way. Not broken awful looking girl she was now. Hermione wanted to be that Hermione. She wanted to be beautiful, someone worth loving.

What Hermione didn't see in her bout of longing was what was behind the beauty of the Riddle-Hermione. Ron did. Ron knew that something bad and deceiving was going to happen as soon as the cup began to fill. When he saw Hermione's hand heading for the cup he had been horrified. He had shouted "No Hermione don't touch it!" but she had just waved him off with an airy "It'll be fine Ronald." He had dashed over her in an attempt to restrain her but he was too late, she had already touched the creepy shadowy stuff. He was horrified as he saw her blood stain, and then disappear, into the shadows. He had her blood now? What was the horcrux going to do with her blood? The locket hadn't ever physically attacked him. It was usually a mental targ-

As Ron thought these thoughts he saw the Riddle-Hermione form in the cup. Immediately he was appalled. This looked nothing like the Hermione he knew and loved. Where was the bushy hair? Where was that smug know-it-all smile that endeared and annoyed at the same time? Where are the books? At the same time Ron felt a slight relief. If this cold impersonal version of herself was the worst that was haunting her nightmares than he could sleep easy.

He bent down to drag Hermione away from Riddle-Hermione when he, for the first time, looked at her face. Her face wasn't full of disgust as he expected but…longing? Hermione what to be this cold-hearted person? "Why?" He asked himself. "Why would she want to be this?" It didn't add up, Hermione loved being herself, or at least he thought she did. What could possible make her want to change who she is?

The cup answered him as the second as the image became more like a wizard picture as he Riddle-Ron came into the picture and lavished her with compliments. Or at least that is what it looked like; he wasn't able to hear anything. He couldn't believe it, he had given her the impression that he didn't love her the way she was and she wanted to change because of it? Part of him was thrilled that she cared for him that much, a very miniscule part of him. The rest was disgusted with both himself and her.

He had thought that she had been above hurt. Besides when had she ever even acted upset, God forbid cry, about her appearance or attitude? She usually just ignored it or got very, very angry. The only time head ever seen Hermione cry over either of those things was when…Oh Bloody Heck!

It all came rushing back. In first year when he had said no one would be her friend because she was such a bloody know-it-all. In sixth year when he had imitated her raising her hand. These qualities were what made her so Hermione-like, and loveable. All those times she had cried was hurt because of him. He was the reason Hermione wanted to be this fake, empty, stupid, Hermione. How could he have done this to his Hermione? His beautiful, perfect, brilliant Hermione?

Ron was so caught up in his guilt fest that he didn't notice Hermione slowly lifting the cup to her mouth. Enraptured by what she saw floating, the images seemed to indicate that if she drank this the pictures she saw would become a reality. Anticipation built inside her as the cup got closer to her lips. Just as she was about to swallow, however, the cup was sent sprawling. Its contents spilled onto the floor, the pictures dissolved.

"What-Ron-why?" Hermione asked discombobulated from the sudden change of pace. The pictures that had held her spellbound were less vivid, she was more aware of her surroundings. What she was most of aware of, however, was Ron glaring at her. Fury was spread across his face.

"Don't, you ever" Ron snarled, "Think that a single second of what you just saw was true." Hermione was taken aback. Was she really that revolting? He was that furious about simply seeing them together. How would he react if he knew she was in…love with him? She was so deep in thought that she almost missed what Ron said next.

"You are worth, so much more than that-that monster imitation Hermione. You're the brightest witch of your age! You are perfect! Why would you ever want to change that? Why?" When he asked the second "why" his voice took on a begging quality as if he already knew the answer, but was hoping for another one. Rather like a man about to be sentenced to death hoping to be allowed free.

Hermione was still a bit discombobulated from the sudden jolt back into reality, but her brain was recovering at a brisk Hermione-like pace. However Ron telling her that she was perfect stopped all future progress and undid any progress that was previously done. She was reduced to a muttering nonsense.

Ron however took this, along with her shocked face, as outrage rather than her simply being blown away by what he had said. Hermione watched, still speechless, as Ron seem to crumple in on himself, maybe it was the stress of this whole adventure finally getting to him, but when she looked at his face she couldn't help but think that he looked rather broken hearted, and …was that…guilt? Hermione did not know what he had to be guilty for as he had done everything fantastically so far, that was in fact mostly his doing. She couldn't have gotten this far without him, though her pride smarted slightly at the fact.

She was about to ask Ron what was wrong when he grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes and said with such sincerity that not even Voldemort could doubt the truth of it " I'm sorry Mione, that I ever made you think you weren't pretty, that you were not someone worth looking at. Cause you are, Mione. They say you're the brightest witch of your age, that is true in more ways than one. You're bright not only in your intelligence and cleverness, but in your kindness and your beauty. You're beautiful Mione, and I…" at this point Ron trailed off and a new emotion flooded into his sapphire eyes, at the last moment when he seemed on the verge of expressing of expressing said emotion, he turned his head away and when he looked back to her there was only sincerity.

"…don't want you ever to doubt yourself again." He said this with such caring firmness in his voice, that even someone whose head is clouded by dark magic and romantic giddiness could figure, with help from his last several speeches, that Ron cared for her in a more-than-a-friend way. And Hermione was gob struck .

All this time, these…feelings she had for Ron, she had been trying to convince herself that they were just a very long lasting and deep crush, perhaps an eternal crush, but nothing more. At Ron's words she realized that she loved him, and that she had for quite some time. And maybe he might just love her back, if the feelings behind his emotions were to be interpreted right.

After having the epiphany, Hermione was a little lost, but she eventually picked up on the fact that Ron was staring at her as if waiting for a response, also the fact that she had a rather ridiculous smile that was half shock and half euphoria. She quickly wiped it off her face then looked at him questioningly.

Ron, having located signs of life repeated his hopeful "Will you forgive me Mione?" He had allowed himself some hope from the weird smile on her face, hoping that it meant she was happy and not so upset that her facial muscles stopped working for a bit and froze in that position. (In which we see Ron take his inferiority complex to new heights. Congrats.) She looked like she was about to answer him, when suddenly her face took on a look of terror and she screamed out "Ron! Your shoulder!"


	6. In which there is resolution

Ron looked to his shoulder so fast that you could almost her the snap (We can only assume he thought it was a spider). He saw a mass of black liquid that somehow managed crawl all the way up his shoulder without him noticing. He only got to Bloo- before the strange liquid leapt upon his face and began choking him.

At first she stared at shock, but then sprang into action, long over her days of being shocked into uselessness by terrifying situations (Let us all remember fondly that delightful time in first year when Hermione couldn't find wood to "build a fire"). She began to fire every spell she knew in rapid succession in order to remove the offending object from Ron's throat. She swiftly realized this wasn't helping and Ron was running out of time. She glanced hastily from the black stuff to the Hufflepuff Cup and came to a prompt conclusion (I can only imagine. It went something like this: Ron + Black Mass = Dead Ron; Black Mass = Hufflepuff Cup; Hufflepuff Cup + Basilisk Fang = Dead Horcrux ; Dead Horcrux + Ron = Alive Ron(+ Hermione = Happily Ever After)).

She lunged toward the basilisk fang, picking it up she sprinted towards the cup, when she reached it she immediately plunged the fang into the cup. As the fang made contact with the cup it began to hiss, the further she thrust the fang into the cup the louder and higher the hiss became. When it became comparable to a whistling tea kettle at boiling point she released the fang and quickly ran towards Ron.

Ron was lying on the ground breathing heavily, recovering from his black mass attack. He gave a smile when he saw Hermione leaning worriedly over him. Ron slowly raised himself into sitting position. Once he had done this he turned towards Hermione and said "Told ya, you could do this." When he said that Hermione let out a wild screech (Which I'm told later may have been the word yes, though this cannot be confirmed.) and tackled Ron in a hug, efficiently knocking him into his previous position. As he once again heaved himself into sitting position he realized wit a shock that Hermione was crying. He let her cry and quietly stroked her hair waiting for her to calm down.

Once she had finally let out the last hiccup she slumped into a sitting position and whispered quietly "I was so scared I lost you." Ron felt it would very boastful of him to say "I know" so he simply hugged her.

This hug lasted significantly shorter than he would have preferred, for Hermione soon pushed him away and said "Harry." Ron let out his usual explicit and began to scramble around gathering up the basilisk fangs, in his peripheral vision he saw Hermione doing the same. Her eyes met his and they both shot each other identical guilty looks. How could they have forgotten about Harry? He was up there risking his neck to get more news about the last horcrux and they were dawdling down here!

As they dashed toward the exit where they had left the brooms, Ron managed to get a look at his watch, checking to see how much time they had spent here. When he was looked at the watch he swore. One bloody hour, this whole thing took one bloomin' hour. He couldn't believe, it felt like forever.

"What?" Hermione asked, slightly out of breath from the swift pace they had taken.

"We've only been down here a hour."

He saw shock flit across her face. "That was the longest sixty minutes of my life." Ron couldn't help but agree. "On the other hand," Her face lit up at the thought "it means we've ditched Harry for less time than we thought."

I was cheered by the thought and added my own observation. "I reckon' Harry is out of his mind right now, He has now bloody clue where we are."

They picked up the pace.

…

As soon as they were out of the Chamber of Secrets Hermione quickly set down her collection of fangs and accioed the Marauders Map out of her little bag and began to search for what Ron presumed to be Harry's name.

"There he is!" Hermione squinted " He's heading upstairs, probably towards the Room of Requirement, we'll meet him there."

Broom and fangs in hand Ron and Hermione briskly walked to the Room of Requirements.

However when they finally arrived Harry was not there. Hermione suggested they wait for a bit. So wait they did. And waited some more. Ron was just about to suggest taking the map again, when a great angry presence interrupted him (Said presence also nullified the need to ask the question so it is a moot point anyway)

"**Where the _h*ll_** **have you been?" Harry shouted. **

Aiming to impress Ron quickly and rather nonchalantly as he could said "**Chamber of Secrets," **

"**Chamber - _what?_" said Harry, **Ron felt very satisfied that Harry was so surprised he actually stopped moving.

Hermione cut in to explain "**It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" **Ron wasn't surprised but still rather hurt when even more shock flitted across Harry's face. Of course the tone in which Hermione was saying this rather made up for it. The next words made it even better.

"**Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after you left, and I said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!"**

Harry let out a confused, "**What the – ?" **but Ron cut him off simply saying"**Something to get rid of Horcruxes," **

**Harry's eyes dropped to the objects clutched in Ron and Hermione's arms,** and Ron could tell he had put two and two together.

"**But how did you get in there?" he asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. "You need to speak Parseltongue!" **

"**He did!" whispered Hermione. "Show him, Ron!" **

**Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise.**

"**It's what you did to open the locket," he told Harry apologetically. **

"**I had to have a few goes to get it right, but," he shrugged modestly,** if only because it took a fair more than few. ** "we got there in the end."**

Hermione took the wise route and went along with the charade of "a few" and in fact added to his statement "**He was _amazing_!" said Hermione. "Amazing!" **Along with this proclamation she shot Ron a look that said that she understood that something big had happened and she truly did think it was amazing.

"**So . . ." Harry was struggling to keep up. "So . . ."**

"**So we're another Horcrux down," said Ron, and from under his jacket he pulled the mangled remains of Hufflepuff's cup. "Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn't had the pleasure yet." **

"**Genius!" yelled Harry. **

"**It was nothing," said Ron, though he looked delighted with himself. "So what's new with you?"**

**As he said it, there was an explosion from overhead: All three of them looked up as dust fell from the ceiling and they heard a distant scream.**

"**I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is," said Harry, talking fast. "He hid it exactly where I hid my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on." **

**As the walls trembled again, he led the other two back through the concealed entrance and down the staircase into the Room of Requirement. It was empty except for three women: Ginny, Tonks and an elderly witch wearing a moth-eaten hat, whom Harry recognized immediately as Neville's grandmother.**

It took a while to clear them out. First having to check to make sure no one was still in the tunnel. Neville's Grandmother just ran off, so that was any easy fix. Then they had to direct Tonks to Remus, which worried all them in fear that they would both die and Teddy would be left without either parent. Harry seemed especially worried.

Ron was also worried that they had to ask Ginny to clear out, he knew that as soon as she left there was no getting her back in. As she ran off to fight he felt a twinge of regret that he could not protect her. Though he was amused at Harry's attempt to try to make her come back.

As Ron was worrying over his family (especially Ginny much to her displeasure if she had known) it occurred to him that not just his family was in danger of being hurt."**Hang on a moment!" said Ron sharply. "We've forgotten someone!" **

"**Who?" asked Hermione.**

"**The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?" **

"**You mean we ought to get them fighting?" asked Harry.**

"**No," said Ron seriously, "I mean we should tell them to get out. We don't want anymore Dobbies, do we? We can't order them to die for us –-"**

In one magical moment Ron saw Hermione drop the fangs and dash towards him, and then her lips where one his. And then there was just Hermione. He vaguely recalled throwing the fangs and broomstick to the floor, but then there was just pure bliss.

Harry seemed to be trying to say something which annoyed the both of them and caused them to kiss harder, half in spite and half that they both knew he was probably making a point and wished to ignore it.

Finally Harry** raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!" **

**Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.**

"**I know, mate," said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so it's now or never, isn't it?"**

"**Never mind that, what about the Horcrux?" Harry shouted. "D'you think you could just – just hold it in until we've got the diadem?"**

"**Yeah – right – sorry –" said Ron, and he and Hermione set about gathering up fangs, both pink in the face.**

But as they gathered the fangs, Ron was glowing on the inside (half is from embarrassment though) because he knew that if they won and they both lived, there would be more moments like this, more kisses, and more than enough time to tell her he loved her. This meant everything thing Ron and that would be his driving incentive through this war.

And as he glanced at Hermione with her red cheeks and small smile, he couldn't help but think that maybe he was hers too.

_Collectively written by Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger_

_(Epic comments inserted by Harry Potter)  
_

* * *

Also the bold words are quoted directly from the book.

Okay so I decided to update it all at once. I am honestly so sorry for the delay but now it is finally finished AGH! I'm so sorry that it took so freaking long for me to update. There is really no excuse feel free to pelt me with teletubby figurines or the mascot for the Indians (that thing is evil). I hoped you liked my OOC version of what happened in the chamber. Feel free to comment and I really do hope you enjoyed. I thank all the people who alerted, Favorited and commented on this fic. All of your acts were greatly appreciated.

-Windy of Weird


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